


plus one

by gayprixfinal



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Married Sheith, Post-War, Slice of Life, dogs!!!! so many dogs!!!!, will graham levels of dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 07:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15431877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayprixfinal/pseuds/gayprixfinal
Summary: Shiro treads lightly, and Keith can tell he’s being careful with his words, “What if we get another dog?”Keith looks down at Cosmo, who has made himself comfy against Keith’s sleep warm skin, “Whattaya say, Cosmo? You want a brother or a sister?”





	plus one

**Author's Note:**

> a gift for my bff, who loves my dog as if he's her own
> 
> un beta'd

It doesn’t take long for them to settle into blissful domesticity.

Waking up to the sun and a lightly snoring Shiro in his arms quickly becomes Keith’s favorite moment of the day. 

He’s wrapped in a comfortable warmth, between the light comforter, the man in his arms, and the space wolf to his back.

Cosmo shifts slightly, obviously sensing that Keith is awake. He pushes his snout a little deeper into Keith’s back, letting out a content sigh once he finds the most comfortable spot. Keith shifts with him, giving the wolf a little more space while he pulls Shiro a little closer to him. 

He places a kiss on Shiro’s shoulder and feels Shiro’s left hand shift up and cover his own that rests on Shiro’s stomach.

“Morning,” Keith mumbles, mouth still on Shiro’s skin.

He places another kiss there before he gets a reply, “G’morning.” 

Cosmo pops up from behind Keith at the sound of voices, happy that both are awake. He gives a lick to Keith’s shoulder, and then one to Shiro’s arm in greeting.

“Morning, Cosmo,” Shiro says as he shifts around in Keith’s arms until they’re facing one another. “Speaking of Cosmo, I was thinking…” Shiro starts, looking up at Keith and then leaning forward for a quick peck.

Keith smiles, “That’s never a good thing,” he says between the small, simple kisses they share.

“Anyway…” Shiro starts and they both let out small laughs, “We’re both going to have to go back to reality and help Allura with coalition work soon, and without us here, I was thinking about how lonely Cosmo could get.”

It was true, they only had so many more days until they had to leave their small world and go back to being defenders of the universe and newly minted diplomats. 

When they returned to Earth for a second time, after finally taking out any chance of Galra rule, Allura assured the rest of the paladins that she could handle the coalition duties for a couple months while they all spent time with their loved ones. She was always so determined and hard-working, never taking a moment for herself, and Keith both respected her for it and felt a little bad that she so willingly took charge so that the others could have a break.

Four months, a small wedding, and a renovated shack later, Keith lay in his bed with his husband and the clock ticking down in the back of his head, telling him they only had about a month left of this before the alarm clock would wake him and not the golden haze of a rising sun.

“Yeah, I guess he will be, with us being gone at work most of the day,” Keith says as Cosmo rests his head on the dip of his waist. 

“Exactly, so that brings me to my… suggestion,” Shiro treads lightly, and Keith can tell he’s being careful with his words, “What if we get another dog?”

Keith looks down at Cosmo, who has made himself comfy against Keith’s sleep warm skin, “Whattaya say, Cosmo? You want a brother or a sister?”

At his name, Cosmo perks up, his mouth stretching into a smile.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Keith says, looking back up at Shiro.

It makes his heart stutter a little, seeing the wide smile that stretches across Shiro’s face, making the small crows feet by his eyes noticeable, and scrunching up the scar on his nose. 

“Great! We can go look tomorrow, if you want,” Shiro says, tightening his hold around Keith’s hips, “the shelter a town over does special adoption days.”

He’s thought about this, and the idea makes Keith’s heart grow too large for his chest. 

The idea of coming home to a house full of his husband and their two dogs fills the dormant need for family that Keith had in his heart for too long. Before the war. Before finding a family in their team of misfits. Before finding his mother. Before getting married to the love of his life.

It’s an ache that never leaves, and every day he wakes up in this bed, the ache alleviates just a little more. He’s doing better. Things are better. Things can only get better.

“What time does it start?”

. . .

Keith finds himself a town over at 10 a.m. the next morning, a giddy Shiro by his side.

It’s so endearing, seeing Shiro this excited about something, even though he tries his hardest not to be too obvious about it. 

Their hands clasped between them, the pair make their way into the shelter and towards the front desk.

The young woman there smiles at them, tells them that all the dogs up for adoption are in the back playroom, and that if they have any questions they can ask anyone in a light blue shirt.

Keith can feel the excitement radiating off Shiro as they walk to the back of the building. 

Shiro had always been fond of dogs, taking to Cosmo quickly, who also took to Shiro just as fast – if not faster. Keith doesn’t blame him, he also took to Shiro pretty fast.

They reach the door to the playroom, the glass window letting them get a peak at all the dogs inside. 

“It’s okay if we don’t get one today, ya know,” Shiro says, probably more for his benefit than Keith’s.

“Yeah, I know,” Keith says, pushing the door open, “But, we might.”

He doesn’t miss the small smile on Shiro’s face as they walk into the room and get bombarded by barks of many different octaves and the smell that is so distinctly dog.

The room is big, nearly the size of the first floor of their used-to-be shack. In the center is a play pen, a circle big enough that it almost reaches the edges of the room but leaves some space for people to walk around the pen. On a wall in he back there’s a bunch of small cages.

“Those are the dogs that don’t like others as much,” says a man in a light blue shirt that walks up next to Keith, “the dogs in the play pen are the dogs more suitable for homes that already have animals in it,” Keith nods, making a mental note.

The man tells Keith his name and tells them they’re welcome to talk to him if they have any questions. 

Shiro is slightly vibrating next to him, looking at all the dogs running around in the pen, “Wanna go in then?” Keith asks.

He doesn’t get a reply, instead Shiro pulls him through the small gate that acts as the entrance to the pen. 

Immediately there are dogs at their feet, greeting them and competing for ear scratches and head pats. Shiro goes down to his knees, becoming eye level with some of the dogs and accepting kisses all over his face and arms. His smile bright and a little laugh making it stretch even wider.

Keith joins him, getting the same enthusiastic attention as Shiro. A young chocolate lab tries to climb into his lap while a light brown pointer-mix nudges at his shoulder. 

When he looks to his left, Shiro is on his back on the ground, seemingly being attacked by a very large border collie. He laughs as the dog licks his arm and paws at his hands that try to come up and pet the dog. 

He gets back up into a sitting position, the border collie now done with their attack, just in time to be knocked over again by the cutest dog Keith as ever seen. 

(Cosmo aside of course, nothing can beat a space wolf with blue “racing stripes,” as Shiro calls them.)

The dog has a light brown coat, with a white underside, and darker – almost black – fur around its shoulders and tail. Its fur is a little harsher, and short. Completely different than the fluffy beast they have back at home. He’s obviously a puppy, still pretty small but not a lap dog for sure. Its pointy ears are up in alert as it wrestles around with Shiro. 

And it has… six toes.

Keith isn’t sure at first, it was the strange placement of the extra toe that caught his attention, but the dog can’t possibly have six toes, right?

He gets his answer from Shiro a moment later.

“Keith! Holy shit, this dog has SIX TOES!” He says, to the amusement of the workers that Keith can see out of the corner of his eye.

Shiro sounds like a child, overly excited at a new discovery.

“I thought I was going crazy when I noticed,” Keith says, moving over on the floor to be closer to Shiro, who’s still playfully wrestling with the dog.

He watches the way they play together, eyebrows shooting up in alarm when the dogs front legs move in a way that they just shouldn’t.

Shiro freezes as well, also caught off guard.

The man from earlier – Anthony, Keith remembers after a second – is at the edge of the pen, laughing at the shock and concern on both of their faces.  
“It’s a Norwegian Lundehund mix, a mix with what we don’t know, but the six toes, large range of movement in its front legs and its… other abilities, makes it a Norwegian Lundehund,” he says, leaning against the wall of the pen.

Keith looks over at his husband skeptically.

“What do you mean, ‘other abilities?’” he asks, both he and Shiro now looking towards Anthony, while the dog continues to paw at Shiro’s shirt.

“It can bend its head back,” he says, tilting his head backwards and looking up to the sky in demonstration, “except it can do it until it reaches the flat of its back.”

It’s the strangest thing Keith has ever heard, and he has a wolf back home that can teleport.

Its that fact alone that solidifies his choice of dog in his mind.

“We have to get him,” he says, looking over at Shiro with a smile on his face and pleading look in his eyes.

Shiro can’t really deny him anything.

. . .

They leave the shelter with the dog in the seat behind them in their truck. Usually it takes days to be able to bring the dog home, but once the manager realized who they were – legendary war heroes, saviors of the planet – she sped up the process and an hour later Keith, Shiro, and their still unnamed dog are on their way to the pet store.

Shiro holds the leash while the pair walk through the store with their new family member in tow, filling their cart with food suited for his breed and other such necessities as a bed and food bowls. Keith catches Shiro putting extra treats and toys in the cart at least 8 times, but he doesn’t say anything. 

It’s when they get home that they brace themselves for the moment of truth: will Cosmo like his new brother?

The question is answered almost immediately as Keith steps out of the truck and Cosmo appears by his side in a small flash of light. A moment later, Shiro comes around the front of the truck, their new companion trotting right under his feet.

Cosmo perks up at the sight of another animal, walking over curiously to the dog that sticks right to Shiro’s leg like a lifeline. 

With his wild black fur, Cosmo looks three times the size of his new brother, only slightly taller than him but taking up way more space.

Both Keith and Shiro hold their breaths as the two animals lean forward to smell one another, hesitantly taking in the newcomer. 

It seems like a standoff, with Cosmo walking around the dog and smelling every inch he can reach. He looks up at Shiro, almost quizzically, as if to ask Shiro if _he_ trusts the dog, and Shiro gives him a little nod.

Cosmo comes back around to stand in front of his new brother, taking a moment before he licks a stripe up the side of the dog’s face.

Keith lets out a sigh of relief and looks up to see Shiro already looking at him, blinding, heart wrenching smile on his face. 

The ache alleviates just a little more.

**Author's Note:**

> the norwegian lundehund is the greatest dog ever, they're so strange and i'd die for them and any dog that is mixed with them immediately gets 1000% cuter
> 
> talk domestic sheith with me on all the social medias  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/byecroft) | [tumblr](https://gayprixfinal.tumblr.com/)


End file.
